T-CELL RESPONSES IN HODGKINS-DISEASE - FREQUENCY-DISTRIBUTION OF IL-2PRODUCING CELLS AND QUANTITATION OF IL-2 PRODUCED PER CELL

T cell dysfunction in Hodgkin's disease (HD) is,well documented. Since interleukin-2 (IL-2) plays a pivotal role in T cell proliferation, we have investigated frequency distribution of IL-2 producing phytohaema gglutinin (PHA)-stimulated lymphocytes from HD patients compared to th at of healthy donors using two limiting dilution (LD) culture systems in which autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) and Epstein Bar r Virus transformed allogeneic B lymphoblastoid cell lines (EBV-LCL) h ave been used as feeders. The latter provided better conditions for IL -2 production by single cells, as evident from the enhanced frequencie s obtained (For healthy donors: 1/67+/-1545.5 using EBV-LCL and 1/1 12 3+/-1.7438 using autologous PBL as feeders). The data showed significa ntly reduced frequency of IL-2 producing cells as well as reduced quan tity of IL-2 produced per cell in I-ID even after using/EBV-LCL as fee ders, the amount of IL-2 produced per activated responder cell in PID patients being 0.825-1.3 pg/well(p<0.001) as compared to 1.48-2.43 pg/ well in healthy donors. Thus, the EBV-LCL feeders did provide better c ulture conditions for estimating frequencies of functional T cells. Ho wever these cell lines were unable to restore in vitro the abnormaliti es in functional properties of T cells in HD.